Wild Card crew stays busy in 2024

Freddie Roach’s legendary, Hollywood-based Wild Card Boxing gym is busy with its fighters in the first quarter of 2024.

Fresh off an impressive win for Roach-trained, undefeated,168-pound contender Jaime Munguia in Arizona on Saturday night, the Wild Card crew is busy getting red-hot prospects, Alan Garcia and Gor Yeritsyan, ready for fight dates in February.

On February 8, live from the Michelob Arena in Las Vegas, it’s lightweight prospect Alan Garcia under the lights. Garcia fights out of Ulysses, Kansas but is working out at the Wild Card under conditioning expert Pedro Garcia and trainer Gloria Alvarado.

He is coming off 2 impressive wins in 2023 that took him to 10-0, with 8 stoppages, since turning pro in the fall of 2020. With 8 stoppages in 10 fights, he has some pop. However, Garcia says, “Yes, Bill, he has power but really I’d describe him as a boxer-puncher. He is very fast, a good boxer, he has good footwork”, he said. “He’s technically very sound”. 

Next, on February 23, we have Freddie Roach-trained, undefeated Gor Yeritsyan (17-0, 14 KO’s) taking on tough Texan Quinton Randall (13-1-1, 3 KO’s) at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez, California, on a Tom Loeffler “360 Promotions” card. 

Yeritsyan is a strong puncher as his 14 stoppages in 17 fights indicate. However, he also prides himself on staying on point with his boxing skills in each fight. 

Against Randall, he will need his boxing guile, along with his punching power, as Randall has only lost one time in 14 fights and that was against undefeated Georgian Brian Norman.

However, look for Yeritsyan to press the action against Randall as the Houston-Texas-born fighter only has 3 stoppages in 15 fights. So Yeritsyan boxing, as opposed to pressure, would appear to play into Randall’s strengths.

Garcia and Yeritsyan, are 2 fighters to keep an eye on. 

*Undefeated Wild Card prospect Umar Dzambekov was scheduled to go on January 27th but is dealing with a back injury. 

Speaking of champions...This article is dedicated to the memory of (17-1, 11 KO’s) Cem Kilic, a Turkish super middleweight boxer who sadly passed at the end of December at just 29 years of age. Cem was a regular at the Wild Card Boxing Gym and was close with many of the Wild Card family. Thoughts and prayers went out to Cem’s family. RIP Cem.